Last week in technology class, our K-2nd grade students discussed how to treat each other at school and online. This lesson comes from Common Sense Media’s Digital Citizenship K-2 Unit 2, Lesson 3.

We talked about bullying – how it was someone being mean or trying to scare a student over and over without being sorry for their actions. Then we talked about cyberbullying – those mean or scary things happening online. Students were able to tell me things that they love to do on the computer or online. Some of the answers were: play games, chat, watch videos, text, and search for things. After hearing those things, I asked them how they felt doing those things online. It was unanimous that those things online were fun and interesting. But if cyberbullying was happening, they would not like to do those things because they wouldn’t want to be online. They told me that they would feel hurt, sad, angry, or scared if they were apart of cyberbullying.

Some examples of cyberbullying are sending a mean email or message to someone, posting mean things about someone on a website, making fun of someone in an online chat, or doing mean things to someone’s character in an online game.

What should you do if someone starts cyberbullying?
1. Stop using the computer until it is safe.
2. Tell an adult you trust.
3. Go online only when a trusted adult says it’s okay.
4. Play online only with kids who are nice.

The kindergarten students talked together about these rules and how to treat everyone in school and online. The first grade students completed the “Screen Out the Mean – Stop Cyberbullying” paper (see the lesson). And our second grade students completed the “Screen Out the Mean Assessment.”

Parents can download the Family Fact Sheet from Common Sense Media here.